Author Ivan Petkovic from Hamburg, Germany Conflict Management 101 Conflict is a tricky word and varies a lot from culture to culture. In some cultures “pursuing conflict” is a sign of engagement with others and in other cultures, conflict is avoided at all costs. Again, in some cultures, conflict can mean anything as small as a disagreement and in other cultures, it is only used for heavily escalated situations. Whatever it is, a conflict will sooner or later be present in our lives

Author Stephan Classen from Seattle, United States of America Many people in the Magic community are sustainably-conscious, especially Magic Judges. We as travelers planeswalkers and citizens on the earth plane should be concerned about our impact on the world and what that can come back to affect us all. We have impact on our world by judging through travel, waste production, and consuming everyday items, especially for larger events. This second article aims to give judges (and players)

Author Jackson Moore from South Africa, living in France Hello everyone! Today, we are going to talk about welcoming new judges “to the fold.” In case you aren’t aware of the project, there is a project called “Welcome to the Fold” that points out new judges during staff parties after GPs, gives them a promo and makes sure everyone knows who they are. This is a great thing. Given that GP teams are crawling with veterans whom most veterans know, it is important to point out who

Author Stephan Classen from Seattle, United States of America As a traveling judge, and a person concerned about our environment, one of the things I’m always looking at for tournaments and travel is environmental impact. While I love Magic, it saddens me that the hobby that we all love is so damaging and events are so wasteful. This first guiding article is to give judges some ideas as to what can be done to add more Green to your events and personal impact, as well as some ideas to talk

Author Martina Eva Tonković from Ulm, Germany Recurring issue that bothers many judges (especially near the end of exemplar window) is how to write recognitions. While most of us know WHO to recognize and for WHAT, the issue is mostly connected to HOW to do it. Recognitions being rejected is demotivating and turns people from writing them. It’s common to surprise other judges with such a public thank you for doing something right, something that they might not have noticed as something

Author Ivan Petkovic from Hamburg, Germany Welcome to the 3 part of this feedback article series! I hope you have tried giving feedback. Today we will be finishing this story of feedback by talking about receiving it. Receiving feedback is easier if your mindset is in the right place. Most of us like hearing praise and dislike hearing criticism, but the later one usually can teach us more about ourselves. For this reason, I will be focusing on how to receive critical or constructive

Author Ivan Petkovic from Hamburg, Germany Welcome to part 2 of this feedback article series! Welcome to part 2 of this feedback article series! I hope you liked the introduction part. As always, share your ideas and thoughts with me in the comments or message me directly. If you have missed the last part, you can find it here. Communicate your observation from the “I perspective” This usually is an easy task, but let us focus on it for just a second: "Communicating

Author Ivan Petkovic from Hamburg, Germany Feedback. A very popular buzzword not only in the Judge Program but in the professional working world as well. Almost all organizations (and people inside them) want feedback to be happening, but most of them do not know how it is properly given. Also, what does properly mean? Let’s start from the anti-pattern or bad example. Quite often feedback is given for selfish reasons alone: “If you will change from this to that, I will be happy.” You

Here are more considerations for you and your time at the event! Most large events have Team Leaders (managing a team task) on their main event staff, and Public events leads and On Demand events leads. Each of these judges is going to be managing their section of the tournament, and you will be assigned to work with one of them. Main Event teams have specific roles for their team leader to cover- from deck checks to pairings posting, to match slips and floor team. Each event is slightly different,

Author Stephan Classen from Seattle, United States of America If you’ve been selected to be on staff for your first large event, or would like some ers, this article is for you. This is only one part of preparation for a large Magic event, and this article will help tie in some ideas to plant in your mind what to expect at your first tournament! The first article will go over some considerations for preparing for your event. The second will cover things to think about while at the tournament! Just